Bulbury Woods Golf Club

Bulbury Woods sits inland from Poole, in the belt of heath and mixed woodland that separates Poole Harbour from the market towns of east Dorset. This is Thomas Hardy's Dorset in miniature: sandy heathland giving way to pockets of oak and pine, criss-crossed by quiet lanes rather than main roads, with Poole's harbour and the Purbeck hills visible to the south on a clear day. Poole itself is one of the largest natural harbours in the world, and the countryside immediately inland has traditionally been given over to forestry and heath rather than intensive farming, leaving stands of established woodland close to the town's outskirts. A golf club named for its wooded setting draws directly on that landscape, with mature trees rather than open fairway defining much of the course's character. Its position a short distance from Poole and Wareham puts it within easy reach of the Dorset coast, while still sitting in genuinely rural surroundings away from the busier stretches of the A35 and A31.